The Usual Suspect- Patrick Rotzetter

The Usual Suspects 

Duration: 2m50 seconds

Camera and editing, mise-en-scene

In the opening sequence , there’s no title; the film shows the action starting straight away which makes spectators understand what’s going on without being interrupted. The opening is started with matches being ignite by a character which could symbolize how this scene would end. The scene is dark and there is not much lightning,due to this the spectators’ attention are mainly focused on the colour of the frames, which contracts the rest of the scene. The orange-yellow colour comes from the ignition of the fire which represents danger and the other colour shown are light which is the dominant colour in the scene. Because of the lack of lightning used in this sequence, it is hard to tell where both characters are making it a mystery for the spectators, but because of the use of props and long shots ; we end up understanding where both characters are. The costumes seem to be dark and this could represents darkness; making us spectators know something bad is about to happen.     

(The opening of the sequence 00:02)

The camera is mainly held through the sequence to make the spectators understand what is going on; however some tilt shots are used to give the impression that someone else is watching the action taking place(e.g; at 0:22 the fire following the line of oil at and being put out by the urine of the mysterious figure) and this makes the suspense heighten as who have no idea who is performing the next action.                                        
 (The scene where the oil of fire is ignite and put out by the mysterious figure’s urine 00:22)

The shots mainly used in this sequence are mainly “Medium close-up” between the two characters’ dialogue; allowing the spectators to see some visual details as well as the background, it also builds empathy for the other character because we know already at this point what’s going to happen because of the use of enigma and the visual details provided of the medium close-up to his face showing his expression.

( 00:59 A medium close-up showing his expression while having a dialogue with the mysterious figure)

A long shot is used at (0:38,1:58) to make the audience understand where the characters are, even though we only get the characters in these scene, we are shown a couple parts in the background making it more enigmatic for the audience but after sorting the puzzle together; we are left to realise that they are on a ship or boat.

( long shot of the settings where both characters in the sequence are 1:58 )

The most obvious angle shot used is used at (1:52) where the mysterious figure is holding a gun to the other person which shown how powerless the other character is in this inevitable situation and the dominance of the person with the gun shooting.

 ( A low angle shot representing the difference in power at 1:52)

Sound analysis: 

The opening starts with a silent with only diegetic sounds such as: footsteps, fire crackling, water dripping, which builds up the suspense. In this sequence, at 0:29 music starts to play and gets louder which sounds as if it’s building up to something. At 1;28, the music starts to change and becomes louder, making us feel sorry for the character who is about to die and mysterious and powerful towards the mysterious figure.

The dialogue between the two characters allows the spectators to know that both individuals know each other which is indicated by the mysterious figure when he addresses the other character by his name.

At the end of the sequence, we hear a sound bridge ( gun shots) which creates suspense and we are not shown one of the character being shot.

One of the character’s voice seems to be quite low and high pitched which could imply that he has been involved in some kind of action and is exhausted from it and the mysterious figure’s voice seems to be calm, deep that he’s calm and quite powerful and that he has sorted the situation out and has it under control.

We also hear sirens at the end of the sequence, building up more suspense for the viewers and leaves us to understand that this might relate to the shooting from the gun.

This is the clip from "The Usual Suspect"

Published by Patrick Rotzetter